Thought it was April fools when I first read this
From :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2341977/Dishonours-Gongs-water-boss-bills-police-chief-failed-tragic-Victoria-Climbie-hedge-fund-tycoon-bankrolls-Tories-oh-yes-Labour-luvvie.html?ito=feeds-newsxmlOBE for banning hosepipes in a deluge: Water boss's firm raised bills and paid no tax on £550million profitRobert Collington, who is senior director at Thames Water, was given an OBE ‘for services to consumers in London and the Thames Valley, particularly during drought’.
A water company boss has been awarded an honour despite claims his firm ripped off customers, avoided tax and imposed a hosepipe ban during some of the wettest weather recorded in England.
The honour will come as a surprise to the millions of customers who were subjected to a draconian two-month hosepipe embargo during April and May last year – even though April was the wettest on record in England.
Rainfall was so heavy during the ban that there was flash flooding and hundreds of Thames Water customers saw their homes deluged with sewage.
The group’s nine million customers were then hit with an inflation-busting price rise of 6.7 per cent last year– with another hike of 5.5 per cent due later this year.
This week it emerged that the company, which is owned by an overseas consortium, paid no corporation tax in the UK despite making profits of £550million last year.
It also admitted that the amount of water leaking from its pipes has risen to a staggering 646million litres a day – the equivalent of 258 Olympic swimming pools.
Thames Water’s sewerage network also overflowed almost twice a day during the year, group figures show. Its annual report showed that boss Martin Baggs received £1.1million in pay and perks last year after receiving a £25,000 rise in his basic pay.
The group was criticised for raising money using subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, a notorious offshore tax shelter. This helps it to avoid paying UK corporation tax.
The revelation prompted Jonson Cox, the head of water regulator Ofwat, to brand firms’ bumper profits as ‘morally questionable’.
Mr Collington, who is known across the company as Bob, was promoted to his current post in September 2012 and, before that, was in charge of the group’s sewerage network.
Thames Water is owned by Kemble Water, a consortium led by Australia’s Macquarie Bank. Previous owner RWE, the German parent company of UK energy giant nPower, was forced to sell the group after coming under criticism for its handling of the group.
The move has met fierce opposition, with critics saying it will push up bills – already among of the highest in the country for water..
Mr Collington joined Thames Water in 1989, and has worked for the company in the UK and in its overseas division, which has since been sold off. He returned to the UK in 2005.
Mr Collington said: ‘It is an absolute honour and I feel very proud to have received this accolade.
‘But for me, it is a reflection of all the hard work of everyone in the company. Providing water and wastewater services to 14million people across London and the Thames Valley is no easy task but we do our absolute best to make sure people don’t even realise how much goes on behind the scenes.
‘Last year was a particularly extraordinary year for me because I was dealing with the technical response for the drought and the Olympics at the same time.’
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